DHAKA: China will launch its first recoverable moon orbiter later this year, the government announced in the latest step in its ambitious space programme.The mission will be launched before the end of the year and will travel to the moon before returning to earth, the State

DHAKA: As many as 10 people died and dozens were injured when Typhoon Halong slammed into the Japanese archipelago over the weekend, reports said on Monday, with heavy rain still lashing the country’s north.The storm was moving over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), after making landfall

DHAKA: US secretary of state John Kerry arrived in Sydney on Monday for annual talks with close ally Australia, which an official said will range from the crisis in Iraq to security issues in Asia. The centrepiece of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) on

DHAKA: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has won the country's first direct presidential election in the first round after taking more that 50 percent of the vote, according to Turkey's election board.Sunday's victory will extend Erdogan's more than 10-year rule over the

DHAKA: A three-day truce has come into effect between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, after a day of intense diplomacy. It is hoped the latest truce, which came into effect at 21:00 GMT, will help negotiators agree a longer peace. Egypt brokered a similar truce last week, but

DHAKA: Security forces loyal to Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki have appeared in force in the capital Baghdad after he went on state TV to criticize the president.Maliki is seeking a third term but has faced calls to step down amid the jihadist insurgency in the north, reports the BBC.The US,

DHAKA: French forces have bombed Islamist militant positions in northern Mali. Four or five bombs were dropped in the Esssakane region, west of the city of Timbuktu on Sunday morning. The BBC, in Mali, reports. The UN has said al-Qaeda militants were active in the area. Last month

DHAKA: Ukraine’s military has pounded the main pro-Russian rebel stronghold of Donetsk with artillery fire, causing massive damage throughout the city. A military spokesman said the rebels were in ‘panic and chaos’ and had begun to desert en masse, reports the BBC. Ukraine is

DHAKA: Pope Francis said that violence and destruction in Iraq offends God and humanity and he held a silent prayer for victims of the conflict during his weekly address in Rome on Sunday. ‘We are left incredulous and dismayed by the news coming from Iraq,’ the Argentine-born Pontiff

DHAKA: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now refer to themselves as the Islamic State (IS), has threatened to ‘liberate’ Istanbul, while accusing Turkey of cutting off the flow of the Euphrates River, drying up northern Syria, including Raqqa, ‘the capital of the

DHAKA: Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian boy during a confrontation with rock-throwing protesters in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. A relative who witnessed the incident said, reports The Straits Times. Youssef al-Anati said his 11-year-old nephew, Khalil, was shot dead even

DHAKA: India’s BJP-led union government may announce its decision to confer the Bharat Ratna Award for former prime minister and veteran party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sources said, reports NDTV. The BJP has long demanded that the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour,

DHAKA: Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north. Iraq’s human rights minister told media on Sunday, reports NDTV. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Sunni militants had also buried alive some of their

DHAKA: The formation of a ‘broad unity government’ in Iraq is critical to fighting jihadist expansion.French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday in Baghdad, reports The Straits Times.‘In this time, Iraq particularly needs a broad-based unity government because all

DHAKA: Pakistani police on Sunday charged a populist, anti-government cleric with murder after a policeman was killed during clashes with his supporters.The police constable was wounded in Lahore on Friday in confrontations with followers of Tahir-ul-Qadri, a religious moderate, and

DHAKA: China’s foreign minister Wang Yi called on Japan to ‘make practical efforts to overcome existing political obstacles between the two sides’ during an informal meeting with his Japanese counterpart during an Asean summit in Myanmar.According to a statement posted on the

DHAKA: Britain has begun airdropping food and water to thousands of civilians stranded on a mountain in northern Iraq after fleeing jihadist militants. The British development ministry said on Sunday, reports The Straits Times. Two British transport planes were deployed to the Sinjar

DHAKA: Asean foreign ministers, ‘seriously concerned’ over recent increased tension in the disputed South China Sea, have called for real progress on a long-delayed Code of Conduct (COC) among rival claimants.   They also called on Indonesia to ratify the Asean Agreement on

DHAKA: Typhoon Halong killed one person in Japan on Sunday and injured 33, media said, as authorities ordered 1.6 million people out of the path of the storm that battered the west of the country with heavy rain and wind. Authorities issued the highest typhoon alert and landslide

DHAKA: Voting is under way across Turkey for the country’s first ever presidential election put to a popular vote.Three candidates are vying for the position, including current prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.If none of the candidates gets above 50% of the vote, a second round will